DENVER — Neighbors are concerned by a lack of clean-up four months after a residential building exploded in Denver's Washington Park West neighborhood.
The explosion happened Aug. 10 in the 400 block of South Lincoln Street, near the intersection with E. Dakota Ave. One person was injured, a dog was killed and eight families were displaced, according to the Denver Fire Department.
Doc Murdoch, who lives next door to the destroyed fourplex, said he's worried for his safety.
“There's many, many things dangerous about this situation for the neighborhood,” said Murdoch. “I still have the anxiety every day of this thing possibly coming down on top of me.”
Murdoch said he’s had to call police several times due to trespassers.
“On my camera, I get alerts that there are people in here,” he said. “I've called 911 well over 23 times.”
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Amanda Weston with the City of Denver’s Community Planning and Development Department said it’s up to the property owner, DPC 457, LLC, to determine a plan of action and timeline for the property. She said the owner hasn’t been as responsive as the city would hope.
Weston said the city received a complaint to board up and fence the structure in August. A building inspector responded to the complaint and issued an order to comply to the property owner, as well as an emergency board-up/fence work order. The order to comply states the property owner is required to obtain a professional engineer's evaluation of the damage so the structure can either be demolished or repaired.
During a follow-up inspection conducted in September, the inspector determined there was no further damage to the structure since the original inspection was conducted. At that time, the city had not been able to contact the property owner directly, so an order to comply extension was issued, according to Weston.
Later in September, the city made contact with the property owner’s lawyer. Weston said the inspector emailed the second order to comply and discussed what was needed to move forward with demolition or repair.
According to Weston, the property owner hired an engineer, who determined emergency shoring was needed to secure the structure before an investigation could be conducted. The emergency shoring was completed at the end of September, Weston said.
An inspector returned to the property in November, according to Weston, and determined nothing had changed with the structure. Since the city still hasn’t received an application for demolition or repair, another notice was issued to the owner.
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Murdoch is hoping the city will do more to take care of the issue so that he can feel safe at his own home.
"It's almost like they're acting like they've never had an explosion in the city before," he said. "I'm kind of at a loss on what to do here."
Denver7 reached out to the property owner and his lawyer but has not heard back as of publication.
